Mysterious oil spill in the Atlantic Ocean threatens marine biodiversity and local people in Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.110961Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We overlaid map of marine habitats and information on the occurrence of oil patches.

  • We listed threatened coastal species within the area affected by the oil spill.

  • We estimated the magnitude of the impacts on artisanal fisheries and tourism.

  • Three geographic areas on the eastern coast are critical for monitoring biodiversity.

Abstract

This study provides the first preliminary assessment of the potential impact from the recent oil spill in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. Using information on the occurrence of oil patches along the Brazilian coast, we quantified potential exposure of marine coastal habitats (estuaries, mangroves, beaches, seagrass meadows, tidal flats, and coral reefs) to oil-related disturbances. We also evaluated which threatened species in the coastal zone may have been impacted and the magnitude of the impacts on socioeconomic activities (i.e. artisanal fisheries and local tourism). Estuaries, mangroves, and seagrass meadows had the highest footprint among the habitats assessed. A total of 27 threatened coastal species occur within the area impacted by the oil residue. Approximately 870,000 people, employed in both artisanal fisheries and local tourism, appear to have been affected by the oil spill. We pinpointed priority areas for monitoring of contamination and accumulation in marine biota.

Graphical abstract

Coral reef habitats exposed to the oil spill event of 2019 in the northeastern coast off Brazil. Photographic credit: Diego Nigro.

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Section snippets

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Rafael Almeida Magris:Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft.Tommaso Giarrizzo:Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing, Data curation.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

T.G. was funded by a productivity grant from CNPq (# 311078/2019-2).

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